Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Poetry always has been a universal medium of
expression. We can read and appreciate any good poem, written, anytime,
anywhere by anyone. We have to go in search of poets around the world, and
poets in our neighbouring land and other countries of the SAARC region. We have
so much in common with them.

I met such a poet on a winter night in Kolkata a
few months back, though I had known him in cyberspace (via e-mail) for over ten
years, from the time he was editing Muse India. We talked about his poems in the
book just published, 'From Dulong to Beas'. He is a bilingual writer, editor
and translator. He writes in Bengali and English. His latest collection of
poetry is 'Silent Days', which we can hear, loud and clear.

Jaydeep Sarangi also happens to be the Professor,
Department of English at Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri College (Calcutta
University), academic administrator and the author of a number of significant
publications (including twenty nine books) on Postcolonial issues, Indian
Writing in English, Australian Literature and Creative Writing in reputed
journals/magazines in India and abroad. He is one of the Editors of
"Writers Editors Critics" and the Vice President, Guild of Indian
English Writers, Editors and Critics, (GIEWEC) and the Vice president of the
Society for Poetry, Education, Literature and Languages (SPELL). Recently, he
had been awarded with visiting fellow/writer to the University of Wollongong,
Australia and the Westerly Centre at the University of Western Australia.

Sarangi is a typical Indian academic, who is so
prolific in his creative writing, while engaged in all his academic activities.
He reminds me of our own bilingual writer, poet and academic, Prof. Sunanda
Mahendra.

Silent Days, is a collection of fifty poems,
which was published after his successful release last year of the collection
'From Dulong to Beas'. It is in a away a continuation of his journey from
Dulong, where he grew up. Perhaps we should say it is from Dulong to Perth,
where the 'Silent Days' was released at the Westerly Center, University of
Western Australia.

Sarangi was born in Jhargram, "beyond the
Gangetic plains of Bengal, with the most exotic beauties of undulating
topography culminating in hill ranges of Belpahari and Kankrajhor and near the
Dulong river."

Dr. Dora Sales Salvadore, University Jaume I of
Catellon Spain, had this to say about Sarangi. "(his) poetic voice delves
into the question of identity, India, Bangali.... only to transcend limits and
become, above all human. The images are deeply grounded in, contexualized in
India, in particular and precise places. But the hues and meanings are openly
universal......As we all know, India has a rich literary tradition. Jaydeep
Sarangi is a splendid member of this endless family. Truly, a poet of
note". And that is why we in Sri Lanka, and readers everywhere could enjoy
his poetry.

Dulong where Sarangi had started not only his
life journey, but his poetry too, is a small river flowing slowly through the
Midnapur forests in West Bengal. Beas or Vipasha is one of the five rivers of
Punjab, known by the Greeks as Hyphasis. It also is said to be the river where
Alexander stopped.

In the 'Red Soil Allure' Sarangi has again gone
back to Dulong, to the red soil of Midnapur. In the 'Small Rivers of the Mind'
too, he is still in Dulong, "It longs to embrace small but scenic rivers/
flowing gently". In the 'Refugee', I believe that Sarangi is still waiting
at a station somewhere, to take him elsewhere, as we are all waiting.

The aadivasis in their little villages by the
Dulong are in Sarangi's mind, always. They were called Harijans by the Mahatma,
to mean they were 'God's Children'. Yet those who consider themselves superior
looked down on them and because of the stigma attached to the term, the new
identification as 'Dalit' came into use. But it too is a vague term. Only the
people are real, and Sarangi feels for them and writes about them. He writes,

"You are not a blank page, I understand
Your history is on your side". Baul is a part of every Bengali, and a poetry collection from West Bengal,
without a tribute to the Baul singers would never be complete. Here Sarangi has
translated his own Bengali from 'The Baul Call' from his book, 'Lal Palasher
Renu'. "Distrust will be wiped out
From this world one day
The menace of divisions will dissolve
All will bask in the nectar of Bauls" Sarangi had been called "India's Bard on the banks of Dulong" in
an interview by Santanu Halder, himself a poet from Kolkata. Perhaps this could
have prompted Sarangi to write the poem 'Bilingual Bard' where he explains why
he writes in English. "I write in a language that you can understand
My community and dear ones can relate with.
It's a cultural language for global readers.
English is my sword, my refuge
When Bengali is the language of my soul
It may be free licence in English cadence
I use, for a cause; raindrops shaped into a sweet dish.

Raindrops shaped into a sweet dish. That is what
Jaydeep Sarangi is offering us. daya@saadhu.com

Monday, June 10, 2013

COMMENTS:

“Jaydeep Sarangi gives a fresh paint to everyday
living. ‘Small rivers’ near tribal villages are his haunts. His language can be
unorthodox, where a rock can turn into a ‘reckless flow”, but his poems are a
rewarding read, with the scent of herbs coming through the pages.”

-KekiDaruwalla
,One of the leading Indian writers in English and the recipient of the SahityaAkademi Award.

“The myriad of experiences
thrust on us in every moment of contemporary life exercises Jaydeep Sarangi’s
poetic mind, and produces poems full of questionsand hopes but also
recognitions of limitations. The wish to break away, to take flightfrom moment
to moment meets a realistic awareness of links to the land of red soil.”….Dr.Dennis Haskell, One of the
leading writers from Western Australiaand the Director, Westerly Centre, the University of Western Australia .

“This new collection
titledSilent Daysis a welcome
addition to poetry in English by Indian writers. “ ...Lakshmi Kannan in the Introduction to Silent Days

“As we all know, India has a rich literary tradition. JaydeepSarangi is a
splendid member of this endless family. Truly, a poet of note.” ...Dr.Dora
Sales of the University JaumeI ,Castellón, Spain.

Jaydeep Sarangi's recently published
volume of poetry, Silent Days will make a great addition to the
libraries of all lovers of fine poetry. His poems have an ethereal and at times
enigmatic quality which is difficult to nail down.

Perhaps this is a characteristic of all good poetry. Sarangi juxtaposes simple
commonplace items and events with complex human situations. From the gentle
flow of an insignificant river to the plight of women and the Dalit in India.
His gentle manner makes these poems even more powerful than a heavy handed
approach.

Brutal within is voiced
When her innocent body crumbles
She bleeds
As the nation under a colonial rule.
Our youth is touched
With blood at their mouth.
(A Rose is a Rose - p. 20)

Like all accomplished poets Sarangi
utilizes metaphors in surprising and fascinating ways. His poems are like the
sun's rays warming a cold heart - not emotionally heavy - just a gentle warming
of the heart. This paradox of - gentle power - is the best way I can describe
Sarangi's beautiful poems.

I sit under a banyan tree
I read Arjun Dangle aloud!
How nice it is to think, time is ripe
Things to follow as history completes the full cycle.
My silent pen becomes my sword.
(From Homeless in my Land - p. 40)

As I
mentioned in my review of Sunil Sharma's book Golden Cacti, India is
undergoing massive change at many levels. Part of this involves copying or
aspiring to develop many aspects of Western societies. I only hope India is
wise enough to embrace the good things and leave the bad things alone. India
has a magnificent and enviable history of literature, mathematics, philosophy,
spirituality and architecture. I think it is time we from the West abandoned
our insularism and started seriously reading the literature of India both
pre-colonialisation and now in the first decade of the 21st century.

Most Indian scholars and writers are bilingual which is to our advantage as
they can translate existing literature and present India today in English –
which for good or ill seems to be the prominent language of the academy and
Internet. Both Sharma and Sarangi are playing an important role in educating
and forging new ties with those of us in the West who are open to their
brilliance and kindness.

Silent Days is available from Amazon and as I mentioned will make a
great addition to your personal collection or school library.

With 'From Dulong to Beas' (Authopress, 2012), Jaydeep Sarangi
established himself as a poet, but with 'Silent Days', he has created a
bang in the poetic world.

An out and out Bengali poet, who made his poetic debut with a
Bengali book of poems, Lal Palasher Renu, shifting to English poetry
writing is a blessing for a wider spectrum of readership in India. Now
many more are getting Dr. Sarangi’s poetry for appreciation, which in
the words of Dr. Paula Hayes, “reaches towards asking metaphysical
questions.”

But the point, our renowned Indian poet Aju Mukhopadhyay raises, is
still very true about the poems of Dr. Sarangi that the red soil in
Midnapur where the boy Sarangi grew up left an indelible mark on his
consciousness. This is mostly felt in ‘From Dulong to Beas’, but no less
so when in a poem like ‘The Red Allure’, he sings “Longing for the red
soil / Corrodes me day by day/ Like the ticking of a clock /Tick tick
tick…”
But this same poet is quite comfortable in his poem ‘Missed Calls’
where he is in Tollygunj auto line or in a crowded bus: “Some calls can
be received / Others are missed calls”. The beautiful line that lingers
in our mind “With the aroma of chanachur and puffed rice /I remember…/
The pleadings of the boy back home- “Bring me colour pencils today”.
The homesickness that is deeply pronounced in the Dulong poems is no
less keenly felt in the crowded bus of Kolkata. What a mingling is this –
the country with the city, the rural with the urban and what a graceful
easy mobility in the poems of Sarangi.
Just mesmerizing is the next poem ‘For Titas’ where the poet is a
Cortez busy with discovering ‘newer lands’ with ‘smaller steps’. He
rightly says, “Life’s tracks are parallel /Side-by –side”. The poet is
“a man speaking to men’ – wrote Wordsworth in defining the role of a
poet. Here in ‘Silent Days’ we find the poet to be ‘Like a man directed
towards / The honey of experiences”(I’m on your side).
The great lines that Jaydeep Sarangi utters will echo throughout the
ever poetic Silent Days: “My hungry heart can swallow/ The whole
world/ Of poems and rhymes.” This is reiterated in his poem ‘I am’: “It
is the old attire, I touch with a pen.” The touch of realism in place of
sylvan romanticism is there in the lines as found in the poetry of A.
K. Ramanujan: “The diabetic bones vibrate;/ The head is noisy/ The mind
flows like slippery liquid’.
The black crow is here an image. But in the next poem, observe the
shift towards soaring high in imagination: “Blue wings of my imagination
/ Run wild among my ruined terrace’/ Of sad history of women in our
country” (A Rose is a Rose). The poet rightly feels, “Only my native
within sinks/ As the rosary of pains”.
The total number of poems is fifty in this volume and nearly all of
them reverberate with the idea: ‘I was born as a home-bound’ (Refugee).
The same idea of home coming occurs in his other poem that follows ‘In a
Home Away from Home’ and here we find the mystical mind of the poet who
envisions: “ You are there/ As the old three sisters/ Like old myths”.
How he transforms a myth into a reality in this poem and connects it
to a mundane dullness of daily life. He sometimes refers to Shiva and
Lakshmi on his poetic sojourn. He sometimes talks of cricket in ‘Cricket
Australia’ only to remind us of ‘rich mythology of cricket’ where he
again goes universal: “Cricket connects continents’.
A poet’s mind is an enigma for ever which Dr. Sarangi again and again
dissects and anatomises as in the poem ‘My Mind’: I’m ready with empty
heart / For a fresh war of words’. What a big leap in thought in the
poem ‘ Our Journey’: “We wouldn’t come to lunch tomorrow/ It’s so far a
destination/ An effort of no love / And labored glory/ Where my thoughts
opened the window in a jerk”. Mind is a recurrent subject in the poems
and the poet tells: “A rigid mind shivers/ With changing thoughts”.
Other poems, My Family Tree, or Mystery of Life and The House on the
Cliff are poetic fantasies which culminate in the poem ‘Towards the
Center’: ‘The untold legacy of subjugation” which is beautifully
iconised as in Herbert’s hieroglyph poems in the picturisation of
‘SILENCE’.
The poet of red soil knows the meaning of subjugation better than
many. The voice of the Dulong Bard is more eloquent here in ‘Why This
Neglect?’: ‘None has read /Their tales of pain’. The concluding poem is
still a promise for the long pilgrimage: “Somewhere, I hear a door
turning for the final time / in a silent room of its own”.
The poetic voice that delves into the questions of identity,
suffering, pains and ecstasy now waits for the realization of the
‘essence of life divine’. Silent Days is a marvelous book with its
rainbow colours, kaleidoscopic perspectives and splendid nuances which
will forever linger in the lonely corridors of our consciousness.
(Source: 'Merinnews'. http://www.merinews.com/article/sarangis-silent-daysbecame-a-home-bound-refugee-in-all-stations/15886568.shtml )